New Delhi, 27 August 2014: For last two weeks, the ruling Hindu right Bharatiya Janata Party had been endangering the already volatile atmosphere of communal harmony in Uttar Pradesh – specifically the western part of India’s most populated state – by alleging and reiterating it at every platform that Muslims in the region are raping Hindu women with a sinister design. A painstaking investigation of NDTV news channel on Tuesday found BJP’s claim was a sheer false propaganda.

The police records accessed by India’s respected leading news channel showed that in over 85% of the rape cases registered so far in Western Uttar Pradesh districts, both the attackers and victims were from the same community. This only fact simply punctured the propaganda balloon of BJP whose several leaders are accused of the bloody Muzaffarnagar riot of 2013 which divided the society on communal lines helping the party to sweep the Lok Sabha elections in May this year. The investigation also revealed that in 64% of all rape cases in the region this year, attackers were Hindus.

Total rape cases in Western UP in 2014

334

Muslim attackers and Hindu victims

25

Muslim Attackers and Muslim victims

96

Hindu Attackers and Muslim victims

23

Hindu Attackers and Hindu victims

190

The police records show that a total of 334 rape cases have been registered so far in Western Up districts of Meerut, Bulandshahr, Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Baghpat, Hapur, Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar and Shamli. Out of 334 cases, only in 25 cases attackers were Muslims and victims Hindus. While in 190 cases, Hindu men had attacked Hindu women. The data further showed that Hindu men also attacked Muslim women and number of such cases was 23.

Soon after assuming the charge of BJP’s president, Amit Shah organized state unit meeting in Mathura on 23-24 August where the party decided to take up the issues of ‘communal’ rapes and ‘Love Jihad’.